In her April 4 column, "Ignore them, and be spared the drama," (Commentary) Kathleen Parker makes it clear that what bothers her most about the backlash to the chocolate Jesus exhibit is that it makes people in this country look a little too much like the Big Bad Muslims.

The implicit message is that we should be more civilized than the Muslims (and yes, she did use the word "civilized"). But as her own feeble attempt to draw distinctions between the reactions to the Chocolate Jesus and the reactions to the Danish cartoons make clear, human nature tends to manifest itself in similar ways when presented with similar situations. Even though the Danish cartoon and the chocolate Jesus exhibit were separate incidents that took place in totally different social contexts in opposite sides of the world, what it boils down to is that people do not react favorably when they perceive that their religions are being insulted.

So Ms. Parker need not take such pains to portray our civilization as "holier than thou."